Rice University will resume considering race and ethnicity in admissions decisions beginning in fall 2004 and the University of Texas-Austin is proposing to follow suit in fall 2005, the schools announced Monday.

The announcements come five months after a divided Supreme Court ruled that universities can give minority students a boost in admissions, in effect overturning the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' 1996 Hopwood decision, which banned racial preference in Texas.

"We have thoroughly studied the matter through the summer and into the fall," said Rice President Malcolm Gillis. "Since 1996, we have tried race-neutral means, but these alone haven't yielded the necessary level of diversity, including racial and ethnic diversity, to achieve Rice's educational goals."

UT President Larry Faulkner called the school's proposal "central to this university's primary mission of educating leaders for the future." He said, "Students here are currently in a less-than-realistic environment."

In keeping with the Supreme Court's ruling, both Rice's new policy and UT's proposed one allow admissions officers to consider race and ethnicity as one factor among others -- such as grades, essays, honors, socioeconomic status, work experience and many more.

Neither policy allows for any sort of systemized or mechanical way of considering race, such as assigning points or separate tracks. Both just allow admissions officers to consider race in their subjective evaluation of applicants.

Monday's announcements kicked off what is likely to be a round of Texas university admissions policy announcements. Texas A&M President Robert Gates said late Monday that A&M will make an announcement next week concerning its admissions policy. He did not elaborate.

The UT-Austin proposal, which applies to undergraduate, graduate and law school students, now goes to the UT System office, where it and other UT campus plans must be approved by Chancellor Mark Yudof before they can be implemented.

A University of Houston spokesman said UH probably isn't close to an announcement. Because it is so diverse, UH employed affirmative action sparingly even before Hopwood, and any change now would be done by each college, not in a unified way. That process has just begun.

Texas public universities cannot implement a new policy before fall 2005 because a state law requires notice be given to the public prior to the modification of any new set of admissions factors.

Higher education observers have awaited new admission policies since the Supreme Court voted 5-4 in June to uphold a University of Michigan law school policy. The high court stressed that quotas are unconstitutional and that race can't be the determining factor in who gets into college, but said affirmative action still is needed to ensure future leaders are culled from a pool of talented and qualified individuals of every race and ethnicity.

Texas educators and legislators applauded the ruling, saying it would put them back on even footing with schools in other states as they attempt to recruit minority students. For the past seven years, since the 5th Circuit ruled that the UT law school's policy of racial preferences discriminated against whites, most Texas universities have operated with race-neutral admissions policies.

One race-neutral response was the state's top 10 percent law, which guarantees students who graduate in the top 10 percent of their high school class admission to the public campus of their choice. Such students would not be affected by UT's proposed policy.

UT officials noted in the school's proposal that although the program resulted in some modest improvements, it and other programs have failed to produce a "critical mass" of minority students at the classroom level. It said a 2002 survey found 52 percent of medium-size classes had no blacks and 79 percent had one or none.

The term "critical mass" was used in the Supreme Court ruling. It said that considering race is permissible if race-neutral alternatives are found to be ineffective or unworkable substitutes for race-conscious policies in enrolling a critical mass of minority students. It added that critical mass is essential to avoid burdening individuals as "spokespersons" of their race or ethnicity.

The UT proposal's reference to critical mass was also a response to critics' claims that it need not bring back racial preferences because it has used race-neutral policies successfully. The Center for Equal Opportunity, a conservative group in Washington, made such claims in August about UT and Rice.

Center officials could not be reached for comment Monday.

Rice's new policy followed an Oct. 2 resolution by trustees and a Nov. 3 resolution by its faculty council that a diverse student body was vital to the university's mission. Both concluded that race-neutral means alone hadn't achieved the diversity necessary for the school's mission.

Gillis said Rice would review on a regular basis its use of race or ethnicity as "plus" factors.

...and we can all thank that great "conservative" Sandra Day O'Connor.

Rice, BTW, has been attempting for decades (and in vain might I add) to make itself into the Princeton or Harvard of the southwest. As a result it has simply become another left wing diversitopian craphole of hedonism, "alternative" sexuality, (im)moral relativism, and social pandering...only of less prestige than the ivy league. It's president Malcolm Gillis is a left wing Jacobin crook who recently helped to shove light rail down thr throat of Houstonians - a crusade he began several years ago with his good friend Kenneth Lay.

We can also thank our president who argued before the SC that universities "need diversity" and that it was the goverment's responsibility to "ensure diversity" .

"Statement by the National Security Advisor Dr. Condoleezza Rice

When the President decided to submit an amicus brief, he asked for my view on how diversity can be best achieved on university campuses. I offered my view, drawing on my experience in academia and as provost of a major university. I agree with the President's position, which emphasizes the need for diversity and recognizes the continued legacy of racial prejudice, and the need to fight it. The President challenged universities to develop ways to diversify their populations fully. I believe that while race neutral means are preferable, it is appropriate to use race as one factor among others in achieving a diverse student body. "http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/affirm.html#bush

Since all parties agreed that race should be considered in college admissions you can hardly blame institutions like Rice for abandoning merit based admissions.

Very true. The "just don't leave an auditable paper trail" message to the universities was true evil genius.

My advice to any freeper high school student applying to college or any Freeper parents who have children going through this process is to either (a) leave any and all race questions blank on the application or (b) fill out the race question by writing in "human."

How they respond is a good test of whether or not the school is right for you. If the university rejects your application based upon leaving the race question blank, then it probably isn't the type of university at which you would be happy anyway.

Also for the record, I left off race in both my undergraduate and graduate applications to the schools that I ended up attending. I got into both with no problems (though both were more conservative schools than the average college out there).

As an undergrad I was pretty much decided towards the school I ended up at, but also applied to about 5 or 6 others to see what kind of offer I could get etc. One was a "prestigious" upper tier school, though small in student body and not as well known as schools with comparable academic standards. Another was a well known "prestigious" upper tier school with an expected far-left tilt and a highly publicized "soft" affirmative action policy (i.e. no quotas, but also no paper trail) and a heavy "diversity" tilt to their curriculum (i.e. large socialogy, gender studies, african studies, and homo studies departments). On the race question for both either I left it blank or wrote in human. I got accepted to the first school on academics with no problems. I didn't get accepted to the second (the one with the "diversity" policies), even though all my "objective" criteria were higher than the school's run-of-the-mill student - I had both a higher SAT score and a higher class rank/GPA than the student body average that they published. I determined that it probably was for the better and that their "subjective" admissions criteria (meaning race) would make me unhappy at that school.

Some years later, I had a friend who transfered to that school and learned just how big of a left wing dumpster it truly was from him.

He said, "Students here are currently in a less-than-realistic environment.

You know, I actually tend to agree with Mr. Faulkner. Students at UT-Austin ARE in a less-than-realistic environment. Their heads are filled with radical Jacobin propaganda from the far-left "diversity" crowd that dominates their faculty. After 4, 5, or 6 years of that crap many students who graduate from there probably enter the real world without a clue!

He said, "Students here are currently in a less-than-realistic environment.

It is actually quite funny that the "realistic" environment that these Administrators are attempting to create is one where all white people are competent and all minorities are incompetent. White people must meet minimum standards to be admitted. Minorities don't.

All this "diversity" BS is an attempt to divide us into camps, where those who "know best" can favor one camp over another. No matter what color we happen to be born, aren't each of us a different, unique, one-of-a-kind human being? How much more diverse can we be than we are in the first place?

White people must meet minimum standards to be admitted. Minorities don't.

And not even that - White people can meet or even exceed the minimum "objective" standards that apply for admission (i.e. GPA, SAT scores, number of extracurricular activities), yet still be denied for "subjective" reasons in the place of a minority who doesn't meet any of those standards.

In my own experience, I applied to one particularly diversitopian university for undergrad studies and have become firmly convinced that this exact happened to me. I had SAT scores, a class rank, and a GPA that easily exceeded all of the published averages for that school's student body. But not being a protected minority, I was declined.

I also applied to and even recieved a scholarship offer from another school that was considered to be in the same tier of academic standards. Though I did not choose to go there, they had a curriculum that was significantly less diversity-oriented and accepted my application with ease.

In other words, all my objective stats and my experience at another comparable university dictated that I should have been admitted with ease to this one. Thus I am firmly convinced that my application to the first school was rejected on wholly subjective grounds, viz. race and gender.

It was for the better though as I would never dream of going there now in light of knowing what a left wing dumpster they have become.

IMHO, Rice University is not a "left wing diversitopian craphole". In fact, the students and faculty are about as apolitical as one could hope for in a higher education setting. Thanks to the large engineering and pre-med contingent, the school has a work hard, drink hard culture that leaves little time for political activism. Who has time to put on an affirmative action bake sale or a living-wage rally when there are MCATs to study for and Beer Bike to, uh, train for.

IMHO, Rice University is not a "left wing diversitopian craphole". In fact, the students and faculty are about as apolitical as one could hope for in a higher education setting.

That is only true when compared to the ultra-activist radicals of the northeast. Compared to other schools in Houston and in Texas, Rice is about as politicized and left wing as it gets. Just take a look at the organizations on campus.

* ADVANCE is a multicultural organization whose principal mission is to create an environment at Rice that embraces individual differences while emphasizing the unity of humankind. ADVANCE members work to develop leadership skills while exploring career options.

* AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL uses the power of the pen and direct action to confront human rights violations on behalf of prisoners of conscience, victims of torture, refugees, and all other persecuted people; we also work to educate and engage our community in human rights issues

* ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICANS FOR SOCIAL ACTION (APASA) strives to promote unity in our community by educating and raising consciousness of the unique and diverse historical, cultural and sociopolitical experiences of Asian Americans. By recognizing the shared experiences of minorities, the APASA seeks to build coalitions emphasizing solidarity among all communities of color and the community at large. The APASA is dedicated to empowering our community through service and development of student leaders and networks and combating racial prejudice and discrimination towards Asian Americans.

* ASSOCIATION OF LATIN AMERICAN ENGINEERS AND SCIENTISTS (ALAES) is a blanket organization representing the Rice chapters of The Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) and The Mexican American Engineering Society. We participate in community service activities as well as attend conferences throughout the school year.

* BLACK GRADUATE STUDENT ASSOCIATION (BGSA) aims to support students of African descent in their matriculation of the academic programs and social environments within the Rice University campus. It is our goal to keep informed all interested students on local and national events impacting African and African-American communities that request the involvement and leadership of Rice University graduate students.

* BLACK STUDENT ASSOCIATION (BSA)'s purposes is to provide a support network for the Black community on the Rice University campus and to provide cultural enrichment for the campus and the community at large.

* CARIBBEAN STUDENT SOCIETY aims to bring together both Caribbean students and those students interested in teh Caribbean together in order to share with the Rice community the various rich cultures of the Caribbean represented on campus.

* CHINESE STUDENT ASSOCIATION hosts exciting events and activities to promote friendship and increase cultural, political, and social awareness throughout the university and community. CSA provides friendship among Asian-American students by promoting cultural, political, and social awareness.

* CHINESE STUDENTS AND SCHOLARS CLUB (RCSSC) promotes communication among Chinese students and scholars at Rice.

* RICE YOUNG DEMOCRATS provides a forum for politically interested and progressive students to become active in the community in which they live.

* EGYPTIAN QUEENS's main objectives are to promote unity of women within the Rice community, to build cross-university relationships, and to aid underprivileged community facets.

* ENVIRONMENTAL CLUB focuses on a wide variety of energy and environmental concerns, including local, national, and global issues, improving the sustainability of the Rice campus, implementing and improving the environmental curriculum at the university, and organizing/sponsoring the annual Rice Environmental Conference.

* HERITAGE ORGANIZATION OF LATIN AMERICA (H.O.L.A.) is for ANYONE and EVERYONE from the slightly interested to the most passionate learners of what encompasses the diversity and rich culture Latin America has to offer. Join us for laid-back, informative sessions.

* HISPANIC ASSOCIATION FOR CULTURAL ENRICHMENT AT RICE (HACER) was established in 1972. HACER's purpose is to support, understand, and celebrate the Hispanic culture at Rice. HACER offers many opportunities for ALL members of the Rice community to enjoy, such as cultural, educational, political, service, outreach, and social activities.

* HONG KONG STUDENT ASSOCIATION is a newly-formed club to provide a network for Hong Kong students at Rice and to promote the awareness of Hong Kong culture to the Rice community.

* INDIAN STUDENTS AT RICE is an organization for bringing the Indian students together to have a fun-filled and exciting stay at Rice.

* IRANIAN SOCIETY is home to Iranians and those interested in things Iranian at Rice! Language lessons, poetry nights, Persian Nights, group outings, film festivals, national celebrations, and more! Membership is open to everyone.

* NAACP, RICE UNIVERSITY CHAPTER's mission is to improve educational, social, and economic status across all color lines, to keep the public aware of the adverse effects of racial discrimination, and to encourage political action through voter empowerment.

* NATIONAL SOCIETY OF BLACK ENGINEERS (NSBE)'s mission is to increase the number of culturally responsible engineers who excel academically, succeed professionally, and positively impact the community. There is an everlasting burning desire to attain success in a competitive society and spark positive change on the quality of life for all people. This is NSBE's focus. NSBE is open to ALL students who are dedicated toward fulfilling its mission.

* NATIVE AMERICAN STUDENT ASSOCIATION is an organization that brings American Indian students and individuals from various backgrounds together for social and cultural activities and promotes awareness of American Indian issues on campus.

* PRIDE Alliance: 1. provide a healthy and safe place for Rice University students who are discovering their sexual orientation to find understanding and develop a network of support; 2. educate the Rice community on gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgendered issues, cultures, and history through various programming efforts; 3. provide a place for gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgendered, questioning, and straight students and others to meet, gain information, and socialize.

* RICE FOR CHOICE defends a woman's right to choose and works to uphold local and national legislation supporting reproductive freedom, while also educating the Rice Community about choice issues.

* RICE FOR PEACE is an organization devoted to public education and political protest in support of peaceful resolution of conflicts worldwide.

* RICE FOR UNICEF is part of a grassroots effort spread across college campuses nationwide to advocate for the protection of children's rights, to help meet their basic needs, and to expand their opportunities to reach their full potential. At Rice, we will focus on awareness of children's issues, fundraising for UNICEF campaigns, and the institution of specialized programs to aid local youth.

* RUZ, which means "rice" in Arabic, is a club which explores middle eastern culture.

* STUDENTS FOR PROGRESSIVE ACTIVISM focuses on progressive issues locally, domestically, and nationally. Our goal is to stimulate and participate in activism that may take the form of demonstrations, protests, speakers, volunteering in the community, etc. We hope to be more than a discussion just a discussion group, agitating and participating in activism whenenever possible in the name of progressive causes. The club is extremely egalitarian and is driven solely by the interests and desires of its members.

* TURKISH STUDENT ASSOCIATION (RTSA) represents the Turkish student body in Rice University. Its target is to act as a bridge between the Turkish students and the Rice community; share the Turkish culture, history, and traditions with people from all over the world.

And that is just a small sample of diversity, gender, race, and leftist organizations on their list. By contrast, I only count three "right-of-center" groups: College Republicans, College Libertarians, and a Pro-Life organization.

IIRC, that environmentalist club was also the organization that sponsored a retreat in Big Bend State Park last year where they hosted "activist seminars" from several Earth First! enviro-terrorists who go around spiking trees and burning down housing developments.

the school has a work hard, drink hard culture

I'd add "engage in widespread public acts of hedonism" onto the "drink hard" provision. Any Rice student or individual who has ever lived within a 5 mile radius of that school (I fall into this latter category) can attest to this addendum.

Who has time to put on an affirmative action bake sale or a living-wage rally when there are MCATs to study for and Beer Bike to, uh, train for.

Evidently the enviro-wackos weren't too busy last year to put on their eco-terrorist seminar. Nor was the homo club to busy to hold a demonstration against the football coach for making "insensitive" comments last year. Nor are any of these students, allegedly spending their evenings devoted to their studies and engrossed in textbooks, too busy to take midnight frolicks up and down Sunset Blvd every couple of weeks adorned in shaving cream and alcohol. I've had the misfortune of encountering that particular hedonist display on the way home from late nights at the office more than once, as has practically anyone who lives in the area.

Yes, all of these organizations exist at Rice. I would venture a guess that a similar list exists at most major US universities. And yes, the curriculum contains some classes that might make a preacher blush. But please don't try to paint Rice as the Berkeley or Amherst of the South. If I had to generalize the politics of Rice, apathetic would be closest to the mark. I've discussed this with a number of my classmates from the mid-90s and they've expressed a similar view. Have you heard a different story from other Rice Alumni?

The hedonistic tradition you mentioned is called Baker 13 and is run on the 13th and 31st of every month, with the largest runs on Halloween and at the end of the school year. I can see how this would be upsetting to local homeowners but not how it contributes to Rice's standing as a "left wing diversitopian craphole".

Yes, all of these organizations exist at Rice. I would venture a guess that a similar list exists at most major US universities.

Their presence is actually in greater frequency at Rice than at most comparable institutions in the south or southwest. It is also significantly more one-sided to the left. While it is indeed true that most schools have a black student union, very few have three, four, or five black students groups like Rice. Most schools will also typically have a hispanic group...but not three, four, or five of them. As I noted previously, I only counted three right-of-center groups on that entire list indicating that not only are leftist groups frequent - they are disproportionately frequent compared to groups on the right. I will venture to guess that most colleges will have a majority of leftist groups but not 20 or 30 to a mere 3.

And yes, the curriculum contains some classes that might make a preacher blush.

Not only that, but are also devoid of any academic merit or value. In other words, the university is offering left wing junk courses and in fact entire left wing junk departments (women's studies/gender studies, which are commonplace in the northeast as departments but by comparison in the south are either at most minors or nonexistant).

But please don't try to paint Rice as the Berkeley or Amherst of the South.

It is no Berkeley, but relative to the southern and southwestern university climate, it is by far the closest thing we've got to Berkeley save maybe UT when at its worst.

If I had to generalize the politics of Rice, apathetic would be closest to the mark.

Apathy is a good description of most college students when it comes to politics, so by simply saying that the majority of a campus is fairly apathetic you are accurately portraying the majority of almost any campus' student body. The key issue that comes involved the activist minority. Specifically, how loud are they? How extreme to the left are they? How many groups do they have relative to the school's size? What kind of activities do those groups participate in? Among the activist sector at Rice it is very loud, extreme left, an excess of groups relative to the school's size, and extremely radical activities (i.e. the ecoterrorist seminar last year).

The hedonistic tradition you mentioned is called Baker 13 and is run on the 13th and 31st of every month, with the largest runs on Halloween and at the end of the school year.

Yes, indeed. I began to intentionally steer clear of the campus areas on those evenings if I knew I was going to be out. I was a college student myself at the time who simply happened to live near that university and commute past it on the way to my own classes and work, so I can only imagine what older people had to put up with twice a month because of it.

I can see how this would be upsetting to local homeowners but not how it contributes to Rice's standing as a "left wing diversitopian craphole".

It is indicative of a pervasive lack of morality within the university's environment, not to mention an open tolerance for that kind of stuff in the eyes of the administrators etc. So in that sense it is thoroughly leftist. Nor do I believe that "traditions" like that may be attributed to college kids simply goofing off. Sure, it is one thing to play a few harmless pranks in college - we all did that. But ritualistic drunken mass nudity-and-shaving-cream fests on the streets of Houston twice every month? That is, to say the least, well beyond the bounds of a casual prank or party. And that goes without mentioning the other hedonistic rituals encouraged on that campus, as well as the rampant underage alcoholism that comes out of there on a far more frequent basis.

Good point. It's important to remember that George Bush helped hand Sandy OC (and the four just-plain-evil Justices) the knife she drove into our society's heart. It was George Bush who allowed SG Olson's brief to be sabotaged, so he could play both sides of the issue - and in the end show his true colors by saying he "applauded" the Court's elevation of "diversity" over equality under the law.

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